HuffPo Blogger Kills Ex With Screwdriver

Today Gawker alerted us to the story of Carol Anne Burger, a Huffington Post blogger who stabbed her ex-lover in the neck with a screwdriver 222 times and shot herself before police could question her. Burger, 57 and her ex, Jessica Kalish, 56, were broken up but for financial reasons were still living together in the condo they'd purchased in 2000. While they worked with a lawyer to sell the house and divide their assets (they were married in 2005), they spent time in opposite sides of the house.

As reported by the Palm Beach Post, according to police, Burger killed her ex at home in their garage. She then put the body in the trunk of Kalish's car, parked the car 2.5 miles away and walked home, where she cleaned the garage and washed her clothes.

There was no outward sign that Burger was angry enough to commit murder, but according to police, "the process of killing Jessica was pretty lengthy," leading them to say that Burger was "obviously was out of her mind."

The Post reported that Kalish had found a new lover and "would spend hours absorbed in cyber dates with her new companion." Living in the same house as your ex and knowing that she's in the next room "cyber dating" (IMing? having cyber sex? video-chatting?) would clearly drive someone nuts, but enough to kill someone?

Friends of the couple are flabbergasted—they didn't see this coming, at all, even though Burger had admitted that she was depressed and sometimes annoyed with Kalish. But murder goes far beyond the usual retribution, like spreading rumors or posting a sex video online. Revenge of any form indicates unresolved issues; murder and suicide indicate something far greater than desire to get back at an ex-lover. What could she have been thinking as she stabbed her ex-wife multiple times?